Chapter 19. The Sociology of the Body: Health and Medicine
Chapter 19. The Sociology of the Body: Health and Medicine
19.2 Global Health
Social epidemiology is the study of the causes and distribution of diseases. Social epidemiology can reveal how social problems are connected to the health of different populations. These epidemiological studies show that the health problems of high-income nations differ greatly from those of low-income nations. Some diseases, like cancer, are universal. But others, like obesity, heart disease, respiratory disease, and diabetes, are much more common in high-income countries, and are a direct result of a sedentary lifestyle combined with a poor diet. High-income nations also have a higher incidence of depression (Bromet et al., 2011). In contrast, low-income nations suffer significantly from malaria and tuberculosis.
How does health differ around the world? Some theorists differentiate between three types of countries: core nations, semi-peripheral nations, and peripheral nations (see Chapter 10. Global Society). Sociologists describe core nations as highly developed or industrialized; semi-peripheral nations are often developing or newly industrialized; and peripheral nations are relatively undeveloped. While the most pervasive issue in the Canadian care system is timely access to health care and access to family doctors, semi-peripheral and peripheral nations face a host of additional concerns. Reviewing the status of global health offers insight into the various ways that politics and wealth shape access to health care, and it shows which populations are most affected by health disparities.
One clear trend that emerged in the social epidemiological literature is the shift in the type of diseases and health issues that affect populations as societies modernize. The epidemiologic transition or “health transition” refers to the long-term change in a population’s dominant health problems or profile, from acute infectious diseases to chronic, degenerative diseases, as societies modernize and develop (Omram, 1971; Young, 1988). Infectious diseases, like measles, influenza, chronic diarrhea, tuberculosis, and plague, refer to diseases caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria or viruses, and are often communicable, leading to epidemic outbreaks. These are diseases common to sedentary societies exposed to water-borne pathogens, human waste, the diseases of domesticated animals, nutritional deficits, and periodic famine. Chronic diseases, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, are non-communicable and characterized by the slow onset of symptoms. They are more characteristic of the causes of death in societies that have higher standards of living, better access to a regular supply of nutritious food, public sanitation measures, and immunization programs to control infectious diseases. They have often been referred to therefore as “diseases of modernization” or “Western diseases” because they are symptomatic of effects of modernization on longevity and